Serves 8
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes || Active time: 45 minutes
Oh my shamrocks, this is good. A fluffy potato biscuit soaking up a deeply savory gravy that is at once mysterious and familiar. The stout really gives this dish an allure, and two kinds of mushrooms make it meaty and earthy and just umami like nobody’s business. And ya know, for a special occasion, it’s not tooooo fussy.
I’m going to give you a few options here for the filling: one with frozen thawed tofu and one with straight-up kidney beans. I enjoyed both, with a slight preference for kidney beans only. My boyfriend, however, vastly prefered the tofu version. And he’s Scottish. And Scotland is near Ireland. So, you know, he’s kind of an authority.
I think it would also be great with some sauteed seitan or a few seitan sausages. But I’ll shut up now, and get to the recipe. Happy St. Paddy’s everyone!
UPDATED: I changed the broth to 3 cups after a few people said theirs looked a lot thinner than mine.
Notes
~ For the tofu variation:
Omit 1/2 of the kidney beans. Freeze and thaw a 14 oz block of extra firm tofu. Press tofu to remove excess water (wrap in a kitchen towel and place a heavy book and a few cans on top, for an hour or so.) Cut 1/2 inch dice and add to the pot when you add the beans.
~ This recipe calls for “leftover mashed potatoes” but you may not have any laying around! To make about the cup called for here, microwave a russet potato, and mash with 1/4 cup unsweetened vegan milk, 2 tablespoons olive oil and a pinch of salt. Let cool, then measure and use!
~ Stout is often processed with animal products (namely, isinglass, from fish) so check out Barnivore to see if a brand is vegan-friendly or not.
~ If you don’t have a stovetop-to-oven pot, then simply make the stew, place it in a 9×13 casserole and form the biscuits into a rectangle instead of a circle. Slice and arrange them on top of the casserole and bake as directed.
~ If you’re feeling lazy, or just want a simpler weeknight meal, make the stew portion of the recipe, and leave off the biscuits. Serve with some nice crusty bread.
Ingredients
For the stew:
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced medium
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 lb carrots, peeled, sliced into thin half moons
1 1/4 cups stout beer
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Fresh black pepper (a lot!)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups cooked kidney beans – 2 15 oz cans rinsed & drained [see note for tofu version]
For the biscuits:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup leftover mashed potatoes [see note on leftover mashed potatoes]
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cold water
Directions
Make the stew:
Place porcinis in a bowl that’s large enough to contain the 4 cups vegetable broth. If the porcinis look large, tear them into bite sized pieces. Boil the vegetable broth and pour it over the porcinis. Cover with a plate to keep hot, and prep everything you need for the recipes. This will soften them and make the recipe a bit faster.
Preheat a stovetop-to-oven dutch oven over medium heat. (See notes for non-dutch oven directions.) Saute onions and a pinch of salt in oil until until translucent, 4 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, for about a minute, until fragrant.
Add sliced cremini mushroom (not the porcinis yet), celery, thyme and rosemary (crush herbs in your fingers) and saute for 5 minutes, until mushrooms release moisture and brown slightly.
Add carrots, stout, tomato paste, fresh black pepper and salt and bring to a boil. The liquid should reduce in about 3 minutes.
Add porcinis and vegetable broth, cover and bring to a full boil for 5 minutes or so, to finish cooking the porcinis.
Once porcinis are soft, in a measuring cup, mix the flour into one cup of cold water with a fork until no lumps are left.
Slowly add the water/flour to the pot, mixing well as you go. Let thicken for 5 minutes or so. Add the kidney beans, turn heat off and cover to keep warm. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425F and make the biscuits.
Make the biscuits:
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, use a fork to mix together mashed potatoes, olive oil and water. It should be very loose and mushy.
Make a well in the center of the flour and add the potato mixture. Mix with a fork until a stiff dough starts to form, then turn the dough on to a clean surface and knead a few times to smooth out. Flatten into a disc 2 inches smaller than the pot with the stew in it. Slice like a tic tac toe board into 9 pieces and arrange the pieces on top of the stew.
Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top, and bubbling up thickly around the biscuits.
Let sit for 15 minutes or so, then serve!
Never have I said “fuck yeah!” So many times during a meal before. Boyfriend and I both felt stoned after eating this. He waxed poetic and said that he never wanted to die just so he could experience food liked this for eternity (a carnivore, mind you) and I felt so happy and content with my place in the world that I literally cried during dinner. (We were also playing Devendra Banhart’s new album.) Completely serious, and it goes without saying, this meal is amazing.
hm. directions say “large enough to contain the 4 cups vegetable broth” but recipe says 3 cups… i went w/ 4, figuring more stew was better than less, but i was wrong. mine turned out delicious, but very soupy…
oh, and commenter above me… “Devendra Banhart’s new album”? looking it up now! that might make my meal even better!
Also, on a more mundane note, I used four cups of broth, and it was perfecto. But after I added the beer I let it boil down to almost nothing, perhaps that was the difference.
Made this last night and we all loved it! Swapped the potato in the biscuits for sweet potato I had already cooked, terrific!
I made this for St. Paddy’s Day and while it smelled delicious the entire time, the ‘stew’ never got thick enough to hold the biscuits. The biscuit dough was very wet and I had to add a lot of extra flour in order to kneed it. Sure enough, as soon as I put the first biscuit on the pot. . . down it went! So I turned the biscuits into drop biscuits and that worked fine. All-in-all, I think we all enjoyed the biscuits the most.
I am certain the beer tastes great because my mother’s tortiere has beer in it is amazing. However and sadly, I have developed an alcohol intolerance and can no longer eat food w alcohol in it, even cooked. Any ideas for substitution would be appreciated!
I made this recipe with the original 4 cups of broth but added 1/3 cup kasha to the onion/mushroom mix. The end result was not soupy at all. Came out great! Question–why freeze, then thaw the tofu?
Wonderful recipe (says me, who’s not even vegan). I chose the 1/2 kidney beans- 1/2 tofu option but decided to smoke the tofu before adding it to the stew. Then I added some smoked paprika powder and chipotle herbs to the stew for an extra smokey flavor! YUMMEE!
Literally the best thing I’ve had in a year. Thanks!
You are GENIUS. Seriously. When 2 teenage boys come down from their gaming to find the source of the fantastic aroma wafting around…ask for seconds…and tell mom, “You’re getting much better with these vegan recipes”…well…sniff-sniff, it makes said mom (who has been doing this vegan thing for a year now) very proud. Thanks, Isa.
Music to my ears, thank you!
I made this as the “dish-my-husband-and-I-can-actually-eat” addition to my parents’ traditional corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick’s Day lunch. Everyone began by taking their customary sample of the vegan dish, and then asked for seconds, thirds and even leftovers to take home! Serious success.
There’s nothing in the world I love more than changing people’s minds about what vegan food can taste like. This was a phenomenal dish, and did wonders for my extended family’s beliefs about our “crazy diet’. Thank you, thank you!
I made this last night and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Thank you. Thank you. I’m making your Sloppy Jerks tonight!
I cooked this for St. Pat’s Day and it was delicious! Even my omnivores enjoyed it. I plan to make it again soon.
Mine also was soupier the day I made it, so I was disappointed it didn’t look like yours – I thought I didn’t let it reduce enough. It did seem thicker the next day. But the flavor was divine. It’s just the two of us, so I added more veggie broth to the leftovers plus potato cubes and turned the leftover into a really good soup for the week!
This was beyond amazing, so tasty and comforting, I served mine with roast brocolli which hit the spot. Thank you for the recipes, never ever stop or I will cry.
Can you just make the biscuits alone? If so, is there a specific/ different protocol?
Thanks!
m.
Yeah. Bake at 425 F on a lightly greased baking sheet, maybe 15 minutes.
I made this a few days ago…kind of a late St. “Paddy’s” (saw note below for proper spelling, ha!) with steamed cabbage and it was very yummy. The leftovers were even better. The biscuits got more moist and the VERY strong stout that I used mellowed out a bit. I just love all of your recipes. I have never had a “flop” while following them. The nut butter/applesauce baking replacement is a real gem too. Thanks Isa!
For Rebecca whose son can’t have tomatoes, I also have a nightshade sensitivity and I substitute Umeboshi Paste (Eden brand pickled plum puree) for tomato paste in recipes. It’s quite salty so you don’t have to use quite as much as called for in a recipe. Also, she can substitute mashed sweet potato for the mashed baking potato called for in the biscuits. I’m going to make this recipe this week with the substitutions and give it a whirl. Sounds yummy!
What a good idea!
I can’t wait to make this. It looks so delicious! Now I just need like a cold, rainy day or something.
I tried this the other night, and it came out incredibly funky. Not sure if it was incredibly salty or overly bitter from the stout. Are there certain kinds of stout that work better than others for this dish?
This was one of the most savory, hearty, filling vegan meals I’ve had so far. Got lots of compliments from our guests. For those who keep a dry house or don’t like beer – you can’t taste it, it just adds a savory heaviness to the gravy, and I’m sure you know but the alcohol cooks off. Some stores let you buy just one bottle at a time instead of a whole 4 or 6 pack if you don’t want the rest in the house. I used dried shiitakes instead of porcinis because that’s what was at the store – I would definitely follow the instructions to make them into smaller pieces as they end up being a little tougher to chew than the other mushrooms even after soaking a while. Thanks for this delicious recipe!
I JUST made this and I’m eating it right now. I omitted the porcinis because I didn’t have any and just put in more crimini mushrooms instead. I also swapped out brown ale for stout. It’s delicious! My only problem was that I made the mashed potato biscuit dough the day before and kept it in the fridge, so by the time I was ready to use it, it was a big sticky mess. Still tasty though! I would make this again.
this is great!
Wonderful! Made it last night as a side to grilled veggie skewers. Although I couldn’t find all the ingredients since I live in Nepal, I was able to make enough oddball substitutions and it still ended up wonderfully! I think next time I’ll sauté the tofu first and let it cook for longer so that it soaks up more of the juices. Yum! Thanks!
I really appreciate that this recipe exists. My husband and I just gave up animal products a week ago. We were both coming down with colds and just wanted something stew like, hearty, and soothing. It reminded me of this rosemary guinness pie at an irish restaurant a long time ago. I wasn’t so sure vegans had any easy to make hearty foods, with all of this still being so new to me. Thanks!
I noticed an error in the recipe: it says 3 cups of vegetable broth in the ingredients list, but it said 4 cups in the instructions. I chose 2 cups due to some comments about it being too runny since it’s always easier to add more liquid later. It ended up needing 3, and it was the perfect consistency.
I didn’t have a dutch oven, so I made it in a stock pot. Once I added the flour, I had to stir constantly to stop it from burning. It just barely started to stick before I noticed, I had turned away to make the biscuits. Beware to those with thin pots!
Great recipe, but I made a mistake in transcribing the ingredients list. I used one and a half pounds of carrots! Still pretty tasty, but over the top! OOPS! I’ll remember that a half a pound is enough next time. Since I’m a mushroom lover, I might even double the mushrooms.
I had a heck of a time finding vegan beer. I went to 3 stores and looked every stout up on barnivore, nothing. I gave in and used Guinness. I would have thought whole foods would have some. I’ll have to order online or something next time I want to make this.
I just made the biscuits because I had a million other ingredients for a pot/shepherds pie situation & the bf said these were “the best biscuits I’ve ever made”! I threw some fresh dill I had laying around, some garlic powder & some nooch into the potatoes before adding them to the mix. So tasty! Thanks again, Isa!
My boyfriend and I saw this recipe and immediately fell in love with it via the pictures. Then my heart sank when I saw the stout listed as an ingredient. (Duhr, it’s not like it’s in the recipes namesake or anything.) We’re in Tennessee and our local liquor laws make buying any beer that isn’t bud light a complete nightmare outside of bars and restaurants. So I subbed it with dark roasted ground coffee and it was delicious. Sober folk should give it a try.
I made this recipe last night and it was not my favourite – my husband thought it was good but I think he was being nice. I made some mistakes: I used shitake mushrooms in place of cremini and it was too mushroomy – that stinky kind of mushroomy. And I used mashed potatoes that I made right beforehand so they weren’t dried out at all, so the biscuits were super heavy and glumpy. I admittedly also put milk and butter into my mashed potatoes which probably affected it negatively…. lesson learned. And lastly I sliced my celery and carrots thinly, but too thinly. I think there is enough cooking time to have made them chunkier and more substantial. I’m sure the recipe could be great had I not used some creative flair 😛
This dish kicks ass….am I allowed to say that here? Anyway, I made this for football night and the hubs kept saying ” Are you sure this is vegan?” I chopped most of the mushrooms into tiny bits so my tiny people wouldn’t notice them. But I left a few in large pieces to throw them off. They picked out the bigger mushrooms and didn’t notice the smaller ones Bwaahaahaahaa!!
This is SUPER good. I think I picked a stout that was a little too um…. stout…. for my wimpy taste buds (it’s a bit bitter); but my Irish boyfriends says it’s amazing and I agree! Next time I might use a lighter stout, or maybe a porter.
You can do no wrong, Isa! Made this last night for the husband’s bday supper and while he’s not veg, he absolutely loved every bite! I tend to struggle when working with any sort of dough but this was a success!
Made this tonight. I found the 4 cups of stock was perfect. I would have probably liked one more stick of celery. It was not really noticeable in the taste. Otherwise a very comfort food style dish. i could not get porcini mushrooms in Australia so I used shiitake.
Halfway through baking I checked on my creation and discovered to my horror that the biscuits had sunk into the stew. I fished them back up, but they sank back down and stayed there. As a result, the biscuits were heavy and gluey. We loved the dish though, and I want to make it again correctly. How do you keep the biscuits afloat?
Looks delish! I am considering making this for Thanksgiving and am wondering about make-ahead options for this recipe. My mother-in-law’s kitchen is a horrible kitchen to cook in, but I am guessing that the biscuits just won’t be as good reheated the next day….. I am thinking about making the stew part at home on Wednesday, and pre-mixing the dry biscuit ingredients, and then making the biscuits in my mother-in-law’s kitchen *shudder* and then putting the dough on top of reheated stew for baking. Thoughts? Suggestions?
I got “fancy” with this and boiled the potatoes. Then I used the potato broth to make the veggie stock/ porcini mushroom soaking liquid. Great recipe!
I finally made this warming dish tonight and it was great! The only disappointment was finding my dog had jumped up onto the bench and ate half of it. :(. At least she loved it too. Once again, your recipes never fail.
Phenomenal. I cannot say enough good things about this recipe. I’m not vegan, but I try to do a lot of vegan cooking, and growing up as an Buckeye state, meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, this dish is every bit as delicious, hearty and satisfying as any other comfort food dish I can recall. And that is exactly what comfort food is all about: satisfaction. Thank you so much for posting this.
Amazing! Mine was a bit thin – I did read your note but forgot to reduce the amount of water, but it was still excellent. I’ll be making this again soon. Thanks for the recipe!
Vegan love from France.
Isa,
this recipe was amazing. I am Vegan and my Husband is a carnivore, so I am always looking for recipes that are reminiscent to meat filled meals. I look forward to checking out the rest of your recipes. Definitely love this site! 🙂 The best of luck to you!
Sorry I am not able to understand – could you clarify please!? Once the stew and the biscuits are made separately, do I add the biscuits to the stew and bake again? What is the purpose of the stove-oven top pan?
Re: stout substitutions: I’ve found marmite/vegemite to be a good substitute for beer or stout, mixed with veggie broth.